Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer.
[Transcriber's Notes:
i) the text mixes 'littera' and 'līttera' (short/long 'i').
Dictionaries generally consider 'littera' as more correct.
ii) it states 'lēctus, ī, m.' (=bed) in the original, but 'lĕctus' is correct.
NB: the adjective 'lēctus, a, um' is indeed with 'long e'.
iii) it considers the Nom./Acc.Plural ending of the
3rd declension/imparisyllabica ("-es", e.g. leōn-es) as short,
whereas is it usually considered Grammars as long,
cf. Allen & Greenough, New Latin Grammar, §§55ff.]
LINGUA LATĪNAPRĪMUS ANNUS
BY W. L. PAINEANDC. L. MAINWARING
OXFORDAT THE CLARENDON PRESS1912
PREFACE
THE book is the result of three years' experience inteaching Latin on the Direct Method, during whichtime we have used the proofs in various forms. Ina method, whose essential is spontaneity, it is intendedrather to be suggestive—to present one line alongwhich the principles of this method can be followed,and it must rest with the individual teacher to modifyit, as his experience leads him. Further, it is still inan experimental stage, and we shall be most happy toreceive suggestions both on the general scheme and onthe details of the book, from teachers using it. Inscope it includes practically all constructions which donot involve the Subjunctive Mood or Oratio Obliqua,and can be done in a year by an average class whichdevotes an hour a day to Latin.
We wish to express our thanks to Mr. S. O. Andrewfor his great assistance in the scheme of the book andthe arrangement of the Grammar and Syntax; to Dr.W. H. D. Rouse and Prof. E. V. Arnold for readingthe proofs and offering many valuable suggestions;and to Mr. E. M. Carter for the picture of the VillaCorneliana.
The need for accurate pronunciation, in a methodwhere the appeal is largely made to the ear, is obvious,but a note of explanation may be necessary, of theprinciple we have followed in marking the 'hiddenquantities.' We have marked the vowel long(1) If there seems evidence of its length from itsderivation.(2) If it precedes the combinations -ns, -nf, -gn, e.g.īnsula, cōnferō, stāgnum; or the inceptive -sce.g. expergīscor.N.B. — discō is an exception to this rule.(3) If it precedes a hidden g, e. g. tāctum (tangō).Diphthongs and short vowels have been left unmarked.
W. L. P.
C. L. M.
WHITGIFT SCHOOL, CROYDON.
July, 1912.
INTRODUCTION
THIS course is an attempt to apply the DirectMethod to the teaching of Latin. The method, whenused for modern language teaching, is based on apsychological principle of imitation; the learner learnsby imitating his master, by saying what he says, thegrammar only coming in afterwards to explain practice.In the teaching of Latin, this method is modifiedin an essential particular by the character of the Latinlanguage itself; Latin is so highly inflected, and somuch of its syntax is strange to the learner, that thegrammar must form the basis throughout and determineto some extent the arrangement of subject-matter.
In using the present book, the teacher will generallyfind a certain sequence of treatment convenient, or evennecessary:
(1) Before a new exercise (or story) is touched, a newpoint of grammar has to be explained. This is putbefore the class by means of concrete examples, andthen elucidated by reference to Pure Grammar; it isthen applied by frequent and varied oral practice,drawn not from the story but from the vocabularyalready p